Equipment Guide For Malt Extract Brewing

Transcription

1 Equipment Guide For Malt Extract Brewing

2 Legal Notice No part of this ebook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system with the exception of a reviewer who many quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine, or website without written permission from the publisher. For information, contact Alpen Publishing Company, 2506 N. Clark St #284, Chicago, IL This e-book does not provide you with official scientific information or official state and federal laws and policies regarding the production of alcohol in homes for personal consumption. If you want to know the official laws regarding homebrewing in your state, please contact your official state representatives Alpen Publishing Company & LotsOfHead.com All rights reserved

3 Introduction In this guide we re going to discuss the different pieces of equipment you ll need to get started with malt extract brewing. If you recall from another Guide I ve provided you, Introduction To Homebrewing, malt extract brewing eliminates the need to mash a large volume of grains. Working with malt extract cuts out this entire step, and greatly reduces the amount of equipment you need, and makes the brewing process much easier and faster. What should I look for in a starter kit? In this guide I m going to make it very clear which pieces of equipment you absolutely need for malt extract brewing, and what equipment is unnecessary but makes your life much easier or helps you to produce better quality beer. For each piece of equipment I review, I have also created a corresponding video that you can find on LotsOfHead.com There are countless homebrew shops out there that sell various starter kits. Before purchasing one, I recommend you review this Guide and the corresponding videos I ve created on LotsOfHead.com You need to decide what sounds best for you and how much money you want to spend up front, and remember that you can always upgrade equipment down the road. What I highly recommend is to find an online homebrew shop that lets you customize a starter kit, so you can swap out certain items for an additional charge. The knowledge you ll gain in this guide and the corresponding videos will really help you figure out what to go with.

4 Can you just tell me which starter kits you recommend? Of course, I just want to say again that I recommend you go through this guide and watch some of the videos in the Equipment section of the Members Area before you purchase a starter kit. Here are links to starter kits that I recommend: Austin Homebrew Supply Here you ll find a helpful YouTube video that describes their different homebrewing kits. I recommend you buy one of the kits with a glass carboy, or customize your own kit and add a plastic carboy: Northern Brewer These guys have a helpful description of each of their starter kits (I recommend the Deluxe kit): Williams Brewing Williams offers two different types of kits, a basic and a complete version. The complete includes a few upgrades such as a wort chiller, but none of these kits seem to have a glass or plastic carboy. If you re okay with a plastic bucket style fermenter, these are nice kits: C257.aspx

5 Equipment Review Fermenter REQUIRED gallon fermenter (for those of you working in metric, one gallon = 3.78 liters). Common types include plastic buckets, glass carboys and plastic carboys. A fermenter is absolutely necessary. Most starter kits come with the plastic bucket fermenter. If you plan on really getting into brewing, my advice is to go ahead and drop the extra money on a plastic carboy with a spigot. I created a detailed 3-video series discussing choosing the right fermenter which you can view here: Plastic bucket fermenter Glass Carboy fermenter Plastic carboy with spigot fermenter

6 Fermentation Airlock REQUIRED Allows fermentation pressure to safely release without risk of infecting your fermenting beer. These plug directly into a plastic bucket fermenter, but you ll need a drilled rubber stopper if you re using a carboy. Alternatively you can use a blow-off assembly. For more details see the video below: Airlock or blow-off assembly

7 Carboy and Line Brushes REQUIRED If you re using a glass or plastic carboy, you must have a carboy brush to properly clean it after use. The line brushes are mostly optional, but I do recommend you pick some up as they make keeping your lines much easier and are the only real way to scrub the insides of the lines. For more details see the video below: Carboy and line brushes

8 Bottling Bucket REQUIRED gallon bucket with spigot at the bottom. You need to transfer your beer off of the yeast before bottling, and these buckets are perfect. The spigot makes bottling a breeze. See the video below for a discussion on bottling buckets: Bottling bucket

9 Siphon and Plastic Tubing REQUIRED IF USING A FERMENTER WITHOUT A SPIGOT Used to transfer the beer from the fermenter to the bottling bucket, or to a secondary fermenter. If you re using a plastic bucket or a glass carboy, you will need one of these to transfer your beer. If you re using a plastic carboy with a spigot, you only need to attach a plastic hose to transfer your beer. There are a few types of siphons out there, the one you ll want is called an auto siphon. See the video discussion below: Auto siphon

10 Bottle Filler HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Attaches to the end of plastic tubing and makes filling your individual bottles much easier with pressure-activated tip. This is not required but will save you many headaches on bottling day and dramatically reduce the amount of beer you spill. See the video discussion on this handy piece of equipment below: Bottle filler

11 Hydrometer REQUIRED Measures the specific gravity (density relative to water) of your beer. This is how you determine when fermentation is complete, and how you calculate your alcohol content. Without a hydrometer, you re flying blind and won t have a clue how strong your beer is or how long you will need to ferment it. See the video below for a discussion on hydrometers: Hydrometer

12 Sanitizing Solution REQUIRED Solution used to sanitize your brewing equipment. Popular types include StarSan and iodine-based solutions. For a discussion on which ones I recommend, see the video below: Sanitizing solution

13 Brew Kettle REQUIRED You want a kettle that s at least 3-4 gallons in size. No need to get a specialty kettle from a homebrew store, any standard large pot will work fine. See the detailed video discussion below: Brew Kettle

14 Thermometer REQUIRED You want a long probe-type thermometer made of steel that you can clip to the side of your brew kettle so it won t fall into your boil. See the video below for more details: Thermometer

15 Bottles REQUIRED You ll need roughly ounce bottles for a batch of beer. Due to the sediment that builds up at the base of your fermenter (referred to as trub), your actual yield will vary. You can of course use different sized bottles, and can also reuse commercial bottles if you d like. The types of bottles you want to use have a smooth lip at the top, not a screw thread. See the following video for more details: Bottles

16 Bottle Caps REQUIRED The plain old bottle caps that are sold by most homebrew shops are just fine. If you do use bottles with a wider opening (such as champagne or some Belgian-style bottles) you will need to be sure you have the correct sized bottle caps. See the video below for more details: Bottle caps

17 Bottle Capper REQUIRED There are a few different types available, with the standing versions being much easier to work with. If you re using bottles with a larger opening (some champagne or Belgian-style bottles) you ll need an adapter for the larger bottle caps. See the video below for more details: Bottle capper

18 Large Metal Spoon REQUIRED You ll be getting a lot of use out of this on brew day as well as during bottling. Stainless steel is the way to go, stay away from any type of plastic, wood or composite material as they can harbor bacteria and be difficult to sanitize.

19 Beer Thief REQUIRED IF USING A FERMENTER WITHOUT A SPIGOT Used to take a sample of beer without disturbing fermentation. Alternatively you can use an auto siphon to take a sample. For more details see the video below: Beer thief

20 Scale REQUIRED You ll need to measure out precise amounts of hops, specialty grains, malt extract, and priming sugar, so a good scale is required. For more details see the video below: Scale

21 Grain and Hop Bags HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Steeping your specialty grains in a nylon mesh bag makes it much easier to remove and rinse them off and then proceed with the rest of your boil. Additionally, using hop bags to contain your hops in the boil will drastically reduce the amount of filtering/straining you ll have to do at the end of your boil before transferring the wort to the fermenter. For more details see the video below: Grain and hop bags

22 Funnel and Strainer HIGHLY RECOMMENDED If you re fermenting using a plastic or glass carboy with a narrow neck, it just makes sense to pick up a funnel to make any pouring into the fermenter as easy as possible. Although not necessary, I highly recommend picking up a strainer to help filter out bits of grain and hops from your boil before transferring into the fermenter. Check out the video below for more details on using both of these: Funnel and strainer

23 Beer Refrigerator and Temperature Controller NICE TO HAVE Definitely a splurge, but by controlling your fermentation temperatures you can drastically increase the quality of your beer. See the video below for more details: Beer refrigerator and temperature controller

24 Oxygenation Equipment NICE TO HAVE Happy yeast = healthy fermentation = great beer. Yeast need oxygen to thrive, and adding pure oxygen to the wort can dramatically increase yeast health and the overall efficiency of your fermentation. For more details see the video below: Oxygenation equipment

25 Bottle Sanitizer HIGHLY RECOMMENDED This is by far the quickest and easiest way to sanitize your bottles before bottling your beer. For more details see the video below: Bottle sanitizer

26 Bottle Tree HIGHLY RECOMMENDED The easiest and safest way to dry your sanitized bottles before bottling. For more details see the video below. Bottle tree

27 Wort Chiller HIGHLY RECOMMENDED The quickest way to quickly cool your wort before fermentation. You can always just use a sink full of ice water, but that takes much longer which exposes your wort to more possible contamination. See the video below for more details: Wort chiller